FC: Conservative group asks FEC to shut down grassroots.com

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35567,00.html

Grassroots Site Under Fire
by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

3:00 a.m. Apr. 11, 2000 PDT
WASHINGTON -- A conservative group has asked the Federal Election 
Commission to close down part of grassroots.com, a commercial Web site that 
provides information about candidates for federal office.

The grassroots.com site features candidate position statements and links to 
their home pages, which the National Legal and Policy Center says violates 
U.S. laws limiting what aid corporations may lend in federal elections.

"It's flatly illegal for a corporation to assist a federal candidate," says 
Peter Flaherty, the center's president, who sent the letter to the FEC on 
Monday.

This tussle might seem to play out along traditional political lines: The 
League of Women Voters, a liberal group, co-founded the site that 
grassroots.com bought in February for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash.

But it also raises thorny questions about the reach of U.S. election laws 
that were designed to deal with print publications and broadcasting -- and 
how those rules may conflict with First Amendment rights online.

...

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